Published 5:30 am, Thursday, April 1, 2010

Dynamo forward Brian Ching gets some help leaving the field after straining his left hamstring.

Dynamo forward Brian Ching gets some help leaving the field after straining his left hamstring.

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

Dynamo overcome Ching's injury to win home opener

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There hardly had been time to settle in at the Dynamo’s home opener Thursday night before the orange-clad crowd at Robertson Stadium cringed when franchise icon Brian Ching tumbled to the ground with a left hamstring injury.

Just like that, the festive atmosphere diminished as Ching was carried off the field with his club trailing Real Salt Lake by a goal.

But as Brad Davis predicted a day earlier, the Dynamo had more than enough to beat the defending MLS Cup champions.

On a bittersweet night in which they lost their captain and 2010 World Cup hopeful for several weeks, Davis converted a pair of penalty kicks three minutes apart in the second half to give the Dynamo a 2-1 victory before a crowd of 18,197.

“I think coming out of the locker room we needed some determination, and those guys did well to get in the box and create a couple of plays,” Davis said after Geoff Cameron and Luis Angel Landin drew the penalties. “And that’s what we did — a credit to the guys that we came out of the locker room (in the second half) with the right mentality.”

Ching, fighting for a spot on the U.S. national team for this summer’s World Cup in South Africa, was carried off the field in the 30th minute after suffering a strained left hamstring. As Real Salt Lake’s Nat Borchers tracked in close proximity, Ching was sprinting toward the goal when he went down, immediately clutching his left hamstring and then lifting his left arm to signal for the trainers.

Real Salt Lake (1-1-0) had taken a 1-0 lead when Javier Morales rippled the right side of the net in the game’s 17th minute.

Ching is one of America’s top forwards, and his severe hamstring strain could put his World Cup hopes in peril.

Ching’s injury troubling

From the trainer’s table, Ching politely declined to be interviewed.

He did issue a statement through the team.

“I felt a pretty strong pull in the left hamstring,” Ching said through a spokesman. “Now it’s going to be a number of weeks before I’m back on the field again.

“But I’m going to do everything in my power to get back on the field as soon as possible.”

Chabala found Cameron, who was taken to the ground by Real Salt Lake defender Jamison Olave for a penalty.

Davis took the kick and tied the score with a blast into the middle of the net in the 53rd minute.

“I found myself on the ball,” Chabala said. “Geoff made a good run behind, and I just kind of curled it in his path, and we got a penalty out of it.”

Three minutes later, Dominic Oduro worked the ball down the right wing as Landin darted into the 18-yard box from the left calling for the ball. Oduro noticed his fellow forward and placed a perfect cross to the left side of the 18-yard box.

Landin settled the ball with his chest toward his left foot. He then faked a shot with his left foot, getting Olave to bite and clip his left foot for another penalty.

“His first touch was very good,” Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said of Landin’s move. “And his second touch was quite deceiving.”

Davis took care of the rest by beating goalkeeper Nick Rimando with a shot to the right side.

“I just said, ‘Be confident and smash it,’ ” said Davis, who had the Dynamo’s first multiple-goal game since Ching had two scores Aug. 1 against D.C. United. “That’s what I did down the middle. I know (Rimando) usually guesses on the first one. He took a couple of steps, so I just wanted to smash it down the middle a little bit high to where he couldn’t react to it, and I did.

Confident strikes

“In the second one, I feel confident going that way, so that’s what I did again. I just said, ‘Be confident, hit it, and hit it hard into the corner.’ That’s what I did.”